


a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light

by folklores



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, could be shippy if you squint, in any combination probably, not totes satisfied with this but it was fun so yk, swag2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 23:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5560699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/folklores/pseuds/folklores
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe Kuroo shouldn't talk, considering his hairstyle - he could totally get it under control, but he just hasn't bothered, so it's his own version of shitty hair care - but it's really, really hard to miss the way that Kenma <i>and</i> Bokuto's roots are showing. At least with Bokuto's it looks like it's intentional when his roots first start growing in, and he's probably lucky his hair has grown like that, but.</p><p><i>Still</i>.</p><p>***</p><p>Bokuto’s hair isn’t naturally two toned, he’s just terrible at upkeep. Kenma is too. Kuroo, it seems, has a type.</p><p>I’m looking for some friendly affection, and Kuroo being very soft at the center.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light

**Author's Note:**

> fill for SASO's #SWAG2016!
> 
> original: http://referees.dreamwidth.org/3776.html?thread=150976#cmt150976
> 
> Recent edit due to noticing I missed a zero in the price Bokuto gives. There's no way that much work only costs 17 USD at a salon.

Maybe Kuroo shouldn't talk, considering his hairstyle - he could totally get it under control, but he just hasn't bothered, so it's his own version of shitty hair care - but it's really, really hard to miss the way that Kenma _and_ Bokuto's roots are showing. At least with Bokuto's it looks like it's intentional when his roots first start growing in, and he's probably lucky his hair has grown like that, but.  
  
_Still._  
  
"Your roots are really showing, bro," Kuroo says one day to Bokuto, when they're hanging out.  
  
This observation causes Bokuto to nearly drop his phone onto his face, down where he's laying on the floor, and he lets out an offended squawk as he fumbles it, though Kuroo can't figure if it's being directed at the phone or at him. He's still not sure when Bokuto rolls from his back to his stomach, clutching the phone close to make sure it can't assault him any further.  
  
It's sort of hilarious.  
  
"They're not that bad!" Bokuto defends, getting up on his elbows.  
  
Kuroo brings his hand up from where it'd been dangling down, pinching his thumb and index together by a couple centimeters. "It's a little bad. It's starting to just look like you're lazy, instead of it being on purpose."  
  
The phone clatters to the floor as Bokuto's hands fly to his hair, smoothing it down so it's swept back underneath his fingers. He's wide-eyed and defensive all at once, thumbing at his hairline.  
  
And then he deflates. Shit, it makes Kuroo feel a little bad.  
  
"It's like, 20,000 yen to get it done 'cause of how dark my hair is," Bokuto laments, the epitome of a sad owl.  
  
That just won't do, so Kuroo rolls up out of his slouch like a lazy cat, slumping over his knees to reach and pet the tufts of white sticking out between Bokuto's fingers. "Lots of people do their hair themselves, y'know. Maybe we can find the right kit and do it for cheaper."  
  
A wary, golden stare considers him, and then Bokuto pops right back up like some demented dandelion, suddenly excited.  
  
Kuroo nearly falls out of his seat, moving to avoid getting brained by the head in question.  
  
Now that the thought has been suggested, Bokuto seems pretty on board with it. He even goes so far as to run with it. "Maybe! I can even ask what they used last time, too!"  
  
"That would help," Kuroo agrees, grinning wide and flicking a loose piece of hair off Bokuto's forehead. "Though, man, I've never actually done this before. I was only half serious - you sure about this? I could just foot you half of it, if it'd help."  
  
Contrary to popular belief, Bokuto isn't all leap before you look. A contemplative look flickers across his face, and his eyes sharpen as he looks at Kuroo. It's been a while since it last managed to send a chill down his spine, thankfully, so he meets his gaze head on with a patient kind of amusement now.  
  
"Yep!" he seems to decide, stretching his arms up and flopping backwards onto the floor again with a heavy thud. "I'm pretty sure about it."  
  
It's actually a little touching that he is, so Kuroo covers it up by simpering, "aw, _dude_ ," and putting his foot on his stomach. He rocks him back and forth as best he can by it, until Bokuto squirms away with a loud snort of laughter when he shifts to jab him in his ticklish side with his toes.  
  
"You can figure out how to do it while I talk to the stylist who did my hair the last time, so it'll be fine!" Bokuto announces, hands protectively up to shield against further assault.  
  
"Yeah, sure. Shouldn't be too hard." Kuroo slants a grin down at him, before leaping off the couch, earning a squawk that he knows is a hundred percent his fault.

 

***

 

It's the very next damn day that Kuroo realizes that Kenma's hair has grown a lot more than he actually had thought. After spending so much time staring at Bokuto's roots yesterday, as if he were some monkey grooming its friend, he winds up staring at Kenma's browner roots with a contemplative look on his face.  
  
Unfortunately, Kenma is pretty perceptive when it comes to people staring at him. Also unfortunately, it tends to make him anxious, so this combination results in Kenma noticeably fidgeting with his phone and Kuroo immediately apologizing with a, "shit, sorry Kenma."  
  
Kenma shrugs a shoulder at him, but goes back to mostly ignoring him as he starts a score match on Love Live, now that Kuroo's no longer staring so intently at him. _After School Navigators_ fills the Kozume living room, and Kuroo opts to sprawl out on the floor while Kenma plays through it, making sure not to touch him while the song plays.  
  
He does wind up humming along with it from where he's close to Kenma's hip, but it doesn't seem to disturb him - if it did, he would make sure Kuroo knew immediately like a cranky kitten.  
  
So, of course he decides to dramatically whisper along at the end of the song, ending with a jazzhands as he rolls onto his back to look up at Kenma.  
  
His roots are super obvious on the underside, too. It's kind of impressive.  
  
Looking down with him as he waits for the scores to be tallied, Kenma scrunches his nose a little. "What?"  
  
"Your hair's gotten longer," Kuroo informs him, going a more delicate route. "The ponytail works, though."  
  
The expression on Kenma's face practically screams _thank you, captain obvious_ , but he reaches back and touches said ponytail absently. It's still pretty small, but it's enough that it warrants being pulled back. "I guess."  
  
As Kenma's hand drops down, Kuroo lifts his own up, long fingers reaching but stopping just before he touches him. When no reaction comes, he takes it as permission to touch, pulling the hairtie free so he can fluff his hair a little from where he lays. "You want to get a haircut anytime soon? Could do a touchup, too."  
  
"It's too much trouble," Kenma answers, going back to his phone and allowing Kuroo to do as he pleases for the meantime.  
  
"I'm doing Bokuto's touchup," Kuroo tells him, despite the fact he's not sure whether that's actually going to happen or not. "I could do yours, too."  
  
Skepticism greets him, as Kenma looks down at him through his bangs. Kuroo shrugs, even if the gesture is awkward from the floor, spreading his hands in invitation. There's no answer for a long, long moment, but then he's listing sideways and dropping so that his cheek lands on Kuroo's chest. It pins Kuroo's arm, and nearly gets a pair of knees knocked into the top of his head, but he just accepts his fate as Kenma gets comfortable, doing what Kuroo likes to call 'sacrificing to the idol gods' as he goes through the randos that he's gotten from score matches.  
  
"If you do Bokuto's," he finally starts, getting Kuroo's attention from where he'd zoned out listening to the game music, "And it looks okay, you can do mine."  
  
"Are we talking 'okay' as in 'acceptable by society's standards,' or 'okay' as in 'this doesn't look like an amature did it?'" Kuroo asks, bending his elbow so that Kenma is cradled against it and he can flop his hand over his side.  
  
Kenma's silent, thoughtful, and then he starts up another score match, mumbling his answer. "The second one. First one's too hard for him."  
  
Kuroo laughs and grins, eyes closing. "Sure thing."

 

***

 

Cutting hair, as it turns out, isn't that complicated. There's a lot of steps, sure, and methods that should be abided by depending on the hairstyle, but it's pretty easy to understand once you've actually made an effort to learn what the hell you're doing. So, Kuroo's not too worried about trimming the split ends of Kenma's hair, or dealing with that thing Bokuto calls a hairstyle, after he spends a couple weeks reading up and watching videos.  
  
The dyeing… that's a little trickier, especially given the fact that both of them require a lot of bleaching. Bokuto's the one that requires the most work, despite the fact he's got _less_ that he needs done, since he hasn't gone as long as Kenma has.  
  
But he's not wrong - Bokuto's hair is practically pitch underneath all that product, as dark as Kuroo's is.  
  
And here he is, trusting him to the task of bleaching his hair.  
  
Kenma sits balanced on the edge of the tub, feet tucked up so his heels rest on the lip of it with him, watching them from over the top of his 3DS with quiet curiosity. Bokuto stares up at him expectantly from his shower stool, not in the least bit concerned about how this is going to go.  
  
At least someone in the Kuroo's bathroom figures this can't go poorly.  
  
Kuroo stands there anyways, calmly combing his fingers through his best friend's hair. Despite the fact he's always got some kind of gel in it, it's incredibly soft when unstyled, and he finds himself enjoying the initial process of figuring out what the hell he needs to do with it. It seems to be putting Bokuto to sleep, hilariously enough, as he winds up leaning into his touch, wide eyes falling half shut while his shoulders slump inch by inch. Kuroo scratches his fingers into his scalp, grinning affectionately despite himself, thumbs rubbing circles into his temples, easy and careful, thoughtful.  
  
"Okay," Kuroo decides, bringing Bokuto back to the world of the fully conscious with a playful shake of his head in his hands. "Let's wash your hair first, and then we'll do the first stage. And I can cut your hair while it sets, Kenma."  
  
Behind him, he can hear the telltale clatter of the charm attached to his 3DS, meaning Kenma's probably bobbled it a little in surprise. As if Kuroo could forget that he was back there.  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Bokuto announces, too loud for the small room, beaming beatifically at him.  
  
Kuroo just pats him on both cheeks, turning him around on the stool he's sitting on so that he can use the showerhead to wash his hair out. Rather than having Bokuto do it himself, though, Kuroo finds that he winds up doing it for him, kneading like a cat and taking care of such a mundane task. It doesn't bother him, though, and he just goes through the motions like it's nothing: lather, rinse, tousle lightly with a towel, and treatment.  
  
Even with the cold weather, they open up a window to make sure the chemicals don't suffocate them. Which works fine enough, considering Bokuto is a living furnace and they're in an enclosed space with him.  
  
Besides, Kenma is in one of Kuroo's ratty old sweatshirts for this, one that he doesn't care if it gets mangled in this whole process, so. He'll survive, cozily.  
  
"This shit stinks," Kuroo informs the room at large, as he works it in with gloved hands, careful with the applicator despite his complaints. "I think I'm losing my nose hairs - how the hell does this not burn when you put it on your scalp?"  
  
"It kinda used to," Bokuto admits, completely still. In this case, it does actually surprise him, given how much Bokuto fidgets when he's told to stay put, but he doesn't comment, just keeps working. "Now I don't really notice it anymore."  
  
Behind them, Kenma makes a soft noise, a snort of amusement that he tries to cover up. Kuroo doesn't point it out, but Bokuto looks delighted, and very much like he's about to. He gets jostled so that he keeps quiet, a knee up against his back, and then everyone is quiet again, the only noise the low battle themes of whatever game Kenma is playing.  
  
It's a long process - comb the hair over, find the roots, cover up, repeat - but there's a sort of zen feeling that washes over him as he goes along, gentle and careful, trying to blend it as best he can so that when it's over it looks right. Nevermind when it grows back in. All throughout, Bokuto is placid, almost as if he's completely comfortable, and maybe he is. It certainly helps him get the job done, and feel like he's doing it right.  
  
And once he's done, he throws his gloves into the trash and leaves Bokuto to his own devices with a pat on the back of his neck, which apparently means texting Akaashi. Whatever floats his boat, even if he feels a little bad for Fukurodani's vice captain. At least he's not playing Flappy Bird anymore, the mood swings that came with that were insane.  
  
"'kay, Ken~ma," Kuroo chimes, grabbing the scissors, clean comb, and a spray bottle his mother was using to mist houseplants before she gave up on having a green thumb. Kenma looks up at him, cat-like eyes uncertain, but he doesn't move. For all his wariness about this, he's trusting Kuroo - that makes him feel pretty warm. "You can just stay there, it means I can wash the hair down the drain."  
  
Without any preamble, he climbs into the tub behind him, but pauses before he touches his setter, waiting.  
  
Eventually, Kenma goes from bowing his head over his handheld to sitting up straight, lifting his chin.  
  
"You just want me to trim it?" Kuroo asks, reaching out with just his fingers to comb it through his hair. It elicits a tiny shiver, but Kenma doesn't shy away, and instead tips his head a little so that the back of his skull is cradled in Kuroo's palm and he can peer up through his bangs at him. "We can dye it later if you want to wait on that."  
  
Quiet, then: "... just trim it."  
  
Understandable, Kuroo thinks. Though they haven't talked about it, he knows for a fact that Kenma probably either decided spur of the moment to do it, or had worked himself up for weeks to finally do it. If he's not ready to after two-ish weeks, then he won't be for a while - and when he is, he'll come to Kuroo's door on a whim, he's pretty sure.  
  
But that suits him just fine. He just rubs the tips of his fingers into the back of his head, watching him close his eyes, and ducks down to gently bump their foreheads before he's nudging his head back up to get to work.  
  
The silence resumes again, only interrupted this time by Bokuto's phone buzzing and the spritz of the water bottle, the snip of scissors. He works from back to front this time, unlike with Bokuto's front to back, constantly double-checking his cuts as he goes to make sure it's all even. Much like doing Bokuto's treatment, there's something calming about watching the blond hair fall into the tub, clinging to the back of the sweatshirt where it doesn't quite make it. It isn't nearly as damaged as it could be, at least, but it's not as well taken care of as Bokuto's was.  
  
He's not sure if that's surprising or not, given Bokuto's moods and Kenma's anxiety.  
  
He just resolves to make sure they take care of it better in the future, especially if it means he can do this for them. It's mundane, and maybe it's a little weird that he's enjoying it so much, but Kenma goes from cautiously poised at the edge of the tub to relaxing with his touch, spine no longer a rigid line as he sits upright for his haircut.  
  
Even when Kuroo steps out of the tub, dusting stray hair off his sweatpants, to come stand in front of him, Kenma is nothing if not calm. He watches him closely, closing one eye, then the other, when he works on his bangs, but he doesn't try to hide from him. It lets Kuroo watch him up close in return, which isn't something he gets to do that often. All he can really do is smile, though, because he doesn't want to spoil this for anyone. The calm in the bathroom, the tiles a little chilly under his feet because of the open window, is a strange sort of oasis that he wasn't expecting out of his day spent with Bokuto Koutaro and Kozume Kenma, of all people. Not an uncommon trio, with Kuroo around, but.  
  
This is a different context for them. He likes it, and, judging by the calm washing over him, his two most important people do, too.  
  
"There," he finally announces, carefully dusting his head off and petting his hair. Kenma scrunches his nose and closes his eyes, almost butting up into his hand as he shifts. "Not as short as when we were kids, but you shouldn't wind up getting a mouthful of it anymore."  
  
"Mm," is all Kenma says, but his toes wiggle as he pulls his feet back up onto the tub edge, so Kuroo gives himself a mental pat on the back.  
  
It's all interrupted by Bokuto, but not in a particularly bad way. "Hey hey _hey_ , c'mon, Kuroo! Wash my hair again, that felt good!"  
  
"Yeah? The treatment been in long enough?" Kuroo asks, dryly, but he's still coming over to get the showerhead anyways. He can say whatever he wants, but his actions give him away clear as day.  
  
He doesn't mind so much.


End file.
